#grumbot lives au

[petrichormeraki]

Happy 3rd birthday, Grumbot! (Uncle Iskall jokes that pretty soon Grumbot will be old enough to go vault hunting. Aunt Pearl brings fairy bread.)

THIS IS CANON

[doctorsiren]

Henry’s drawing of his dad, who has a mustache, as a robot was directed specifically at me (how did they know my obsession with dads, mustaches, and robots??? Also it reminded me of Grumbot, so that’s why I included a drawing of him too)

ANYWAYS

It was only a matter of time before I turned yet another person into a robot :) (and yes, his design is purposefully very similar to Mumbot’s from SSAU for obvious reasons hehe)

[theguardiansofredland]

What do you mean he's sad and alone and misses his dads? He's been taken to every world and lives happily with his dads who love him very much. He wrote that message cause he had to stay at Uncle Scar's for the night and got homesick.

[happy-hermit]

HELLO HELLO EVERYONE :D

This is a fic for an AU where young teenager TCD Scar comes through Grian's rift :) It's a trauma reveal folks <33

Enjoy!!

===================================

Grian was beginning to believe that the rift had some form of sentience, given that at times it appeared to become quite… temperamental. Some days it would be almost eerily still and slow. Others it would— Well, it would do what it was currently doing. 

The rift was swirling with more shades of purple than usual, dark patches appearing and disappearing with alarming frequency. There was an electricity in the air that made the hair on his arms stick up, and Grian had the strange feeling in his stomach that the thing was emitting some sort of sound that was too low or high for human ears. It felt a bit like a thunderstorm. 

Grian had set up shop immediately upon noticing something was different, resorting to sitting in a chair staring at the Rift waiting on it to do something. It was horrifically tedious. Grumbot — in true Grumbot fashion — was refusing to give him a straight answer. Grian was beginning to suspect that he simply didn’t have one. 

So he waited. With several cups of coffee and messy notes strewn around him on the ground, he waited. 

He was sleeping when the whole thing really started —  because the Universe hated him personally, he was sure. 

He was already sitting up by the time he regained consciousness, heart beating in his chest, eyes wide and darting around in confusion, trying to make sense of his surroundings. It was too bright, and his vision was too blurry from sleep, and where in void’s name was that wind coming from?

The rift chose that moment to start spitting lightning at him, and Grian let out a strangled yell as he dove behind Grumbot’s messaging system, abandoning his empty coffee cups to an uncertain fate. He ducked down and shut his eyes tightly as the glow of the Rift got brighter and brighter, as the high pitched noise emitting from it got higher and higher, until finally something in the fabric of reality snapped under the strain. 

From across the room, there was a short, terrified yell, cut short by the impact of something hitting the ground, and a clatter, like the person had dropped something. There was sudden and complete silence, until it was broken by a quiet groan. Heart in his throat, Grian opened his eyes and shifted, peeking over his makeshift shield to check things out. 

The Rift was back to what he considered to be normal, glowing a serene purple, calm as anything. His notes were strewn about the room and burned at the edges. His coffee mugs were nowhere to be seen. 

On the ground was a person. They were curled up on their side, clutching at their head with gloved hands. Their clothes were ragged and torn, bandages peeking out from under them as the figure shifted slowly. And then they sat up, and their face drifted into view. 

Grian’s breath hitched, his knuckles turning white where he gripped the blocks he was hiding behind. It was a kid. He had messy brown hair, jagged and uneven, like he’d cut it himself, and a bandage creeping up the side of his face from under his chin. He had a bandana tied around his neck, mostly a faded green, except for the faint splatters of dull red. His face was gaunt and his eyes were wide and scared as he patted himself down frantically, muttering to himself. The kid couldn’t have been much older than fifteen. He did not look like someone who believed he would live for much longer. 

Grian let himself poke his head just a bit higher over the barrier, frozen in shock and confusion as his unplanned visitor started whirling around and looking at the floor. His gaze finally landed on something that Grian couldn’t quite see, and his shoulders dropped in what seemed like relief as he went to pick it up. 

Grian… didn’t know what he was expecting. A sword, maybe? No. 

The raggedy little teenager had popped through an interdimensional rift in Grian’s basement, looking like absolute hell, and he picked up a gun. 

The kid checked that it was loaded in practiced movements, almost with the grace of a soldier. It contrasted sharply with the youth of his face, and the way his shoelaces were untied and tucked into his shoes. It painted a very concerning picture. 

His visitor was just beginning to gather his bearings, hauling himself to his feet with suppressed sounds of pain. He was favoring one leg. The gun was poised at the ready in his arms. 

Never let it be said that Grian was a smart man, given what he did next. 

“You can’t have those here.”

The kid made a strangled noise of alarm as he whipped around to face where Grian now stood apart from his makeshift cover, his hands raised in what he hoped was the universal gesture for ‘I mean no harm’. And then he was staring down the barrel of a gun. It wasn’t the usual kind of chaos that happened around here, but he was going to try his best to take it in stride. What was the worst that could happen? He’d get shot? 

He’d respawn. But the kid was staring at him like he wasn’t aware of that. Like maybe he was counting on the opposite to be true. 

Grian forced himself to look past the very threatening weapon pointed at him to get a better look at the person's face, and he met his eyes. They were a striking shade of green, trained on him with pinpoint accuracy and refusing to waver. At first glance, he looked almost angry. Grian knew, though, that it was only a thinly veiled cover for the heart-stopping panic crowding in behind it. For the confusion and pain and fear. (And why could he read a stranger so well?)

“I won’t hurt you,” Grian said, calm as he could manage, wings tense behind him. “But you’ve got to put the gun down.”

“You can talk,” the kid said, quiet and shaky. Like it was surprising. Something about it made Grian’s chest squeeze. 

“Yeah, I can,” Grian said, gentler now. “So can you. Can you tell me your name?”

The gun trembled for a moment, just slightly, and then went eerily steady once more. The kid swallowed hard and glanced around for a second before locking back on to Grian. 

“You’re not… infected?” The kid asked finally. 

Grian frowned a bit in confusion, his brow furrowing and wings rustling in unease. Infected. It sounded like a word with more weight than was really warranted. Like it came with a history. 

“I’m— No, I’m healthy as a horse,” Grian said, cracking an awkward grin. “Eat my vegetables and everything.”

The kid tilted his head, just slightly, and the gun dipped just a bit more towards the ground. Or, well. Towards Grian’s stomach. 

“A horse?” The kid repeated slowly, still in that carefully quiet tone, and if Grian didn’t know any better he’d think that he didn’t know what a horse was. Maybe he didn’t. 

“Yeah, you know— sort of like cows,” Grian said, now feeling absolutely insane. He was explaining the concept of horses while held at gunpoint. “But they’ve got longer faces, I think. And you can ride them.”

The kid, if anything, seemed more confused by that, and Grian gave up on the agriculture lesson for now. 

“You don’t need that here,” Grian redirected, gesturing carefully at the gun. The kid flinched a little at his movement, and Grian softened his voice as much as he could. “You’re safe, here. It’s safe.”

It was the wrong thing to say. 

The kid's shoulders tensed even further, the gun recentering itself firmly on Grian’s forehead and those oddly familiar green eyes shuttering back into a mask of calm. Only the slight tremble of his mouth gave away his fear. He was scared. A tangle of frustration and heartbreak and helplessness coiled in Grian’s chest. 

“It’s not,” the kid said, firmly. “It’s not safe anywhere.”

Where had he come from, that he believed that?

“Look, you— You see that behind you? It’s a portal,” Grian explained, motioning to it in jerky movements. “Wherever you were, you’re not there anymore. You’re somewhere new.”

The kid shook his head, desperate eyes flickering from Grian to the Rift and quickly back again. They were shining with unshed tears, his mouth wobbling almost imperceptibly, and for a moment he looked terribly, horrifically young. Too young to be holding a gun. Too young to be scared of the world. Too young to be so convinced that it couldn’t change. That there was no more hope for things to get better. 

“But I— No. I didn’t go into any portal,” the kid said, voice raising a little, accusing. “Then how did I get here? Did— You did something.”

“No no no,” Grian said, hands raised again. “That thing has a mind of its own, I didn’t do anything. I just sat here.”

“Well I didn’t do anything, either!” The kid said, sounding slightly hysterical. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Grian said, as gentle as he could manage. His protective instincts were going haywire; he didn’t really know why. “Look, just— Weird things just happen sometimes. Trust me, I’d know.”

“Then where am I?” The kid asked, voice shaking horribly. 

“It’s called Hermitcraft,” Grian said, voice still carefully calm. “We’re in my house. Well— Under it.” He paused, hesitating, and his next question came out hushed. “Where did you come from?”

The stranger let out a shaky breath, gun unwavering and silence hanging in the still air around them. He didn’t answer. Grian could guess that it was nowhere good. 

They had run out of ways to stall the inevitable, in which the kid had two options. Shoot him or don’t. They were at a standstill. Something had to give. 

A soft noise from across the cavern interrupted Grian’s racing thoughts, and it took him a moment to place it as a muffled baa from one of the sheep in his sheep farm. It was barely anything, and yet the kid reacted as if it were a creeper beginning to explode, whirling to face the noise with wild eyes, swinging his gun in that direction. Namely, away from Grian.

Before he could think better of it, Grian rushed forwards, using his wings to propel him, and he disarmed the other before he even had the time to yell. A stray bullet shot somewhere into the ceiling in the brief struggle, loud enough that Grian knew someone would be coming round to check on it soon, and when the dust settled he was holding a gun, looking into the pale face of a terrified stranger.

“No!” The kid shouted, the loudest he’d been since he’d arrived, pushing at Grian with shaky shoves as he grappled for the gun. Grian deflected his attacks, heart sinking into his stomach as he watched the other grow increasingly frantic, breaths coming fast. “It’s mine! Give it back, it’s mine! You can’t have it, it— it’s mine. Please, please, it’s—”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Grian said, out of his depth, practically pleading. “Nothing is going to hurt you, okay? But you— you can’t hurt anyone else, either.”

The kid just shook his head, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes as he backed away, hands in trembling fists at his sides. He glared at Grian with all the fire of a hardened soldier and all the fear of a child, green eyes flashing dangerously. Something prickled at the back of Grian’s neck. Some feeling he couldn’t identify. Déjà vu, maybe.

“It’s mine,” the kid repeated, firmer and quieter. “It has my name on it.”

Grian looked down, mildly curious among the adrenaline and confusion. 

He stopped breathing. Froze completely, hands white-knuckled on the gun. His skin went cold, heart tripping over itself in his chest. 

On the gun, in capital letters, was a name. 

[ SCAR ]

A name that he knew. 

Slowly, Grian looked up, breath hitching in his throat when he met the eyes of the stranger(?), now looking a little confused himself. There was a bandage on the side of his face. Judging by the size of it, it was covering a pretty nasty wound. Likely to leave a scar.

Grian knew exactly what it would look like, when it healed.

“Scar,” Grian said, his voice sounding odd in his own ears, blank and emotionless. “Your name is Scar.”

“I named myself,” the kid — Scar — said, still shaking a little, glancing around near-constantly. 

Grian swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat, mind void of any clear thoughts.  “It’s a good name,” he said, chest aching.

“Do you have one?” Scar asked. His hands were fisted in the front of his jacket, twisting anxiously.

“A gun?” Grian asked faintly.

Scar shook his head. “A name.”

“I’m… Grian. My name is Grian.”

“Grian,” Scar repeated, nose wrinkling a little, like he thought it was odd. Scar — his Scar — had made the exact same face last week when he’d come across a problem at his park. Grian felt sick. “You’re—”

The rapidly approaching sound of fireworks cut off whatever the kid had been about to say, and he flinched like he’d been struck, turning wide eyes to the sky as he stumbled a few steps back, towards Grian’s content generator. Grian looked up as well, torn between relief and frustration. The kid had finally seemed to be calming down. 

“It’s okay,” Grian said, rushed and panicked as he held out a placating hand towards Scar. “It’s just one of my friends. They won’t hurt you.”

“Friends?” Tiny scared Scar hissed, like the very idea was ludicrous, and Grian was mildly offended.

Before he could come up with a reply, there was a call of his name from above, and Grian snapped his gaze back skyward, heartrate accelerating. 

Of course, Grian thought, watching as Scar crashed unceremoniously into the ground a few yards away. Of course it was him. Grian took a steadying breath and prepared himself. This was either the best possible option, or the worst. There was no telling where luck would have him fall, this time.

“Grian, I heard explosions!” Scar said, elytra disappearing as he straightened up from his rough landing. “Are you blowing things up without me? You know how much I—”

The builder cut himself off with a strangled noise, face falling quickly into something haunted. Almost scared. Any doubt Grian might have had about who the kid was vanished. They had the same way of being afraid. 

The way Scar was looking at the gun Grian was still holding confirmed it. He was looking at it with wide eyes and tense shoulders, breathing quick and shallow. He was looking at it with recognition.

“Where did you get that?” Scar asked, in a voice that Grian had never heard from him before, dark and small and shaking. 

Wordlessly, Grian stepped out of the way. 

And he watched as Scar locked eyes with his younger self. Just another day on Hermitcraft.

[nekodere07]

Tanuki/Raccoon Joel and Kitsune/Fox Etho hide their true identities and pretend to be normal humans HC AU

Folklore AU inspired fr @mellozheist's (thanks for having stunning artwoks dude now I have brainrot and made this when I can't even turn this into a proper fic /pos) character designs of HC s10 Joel and Etho, where the former is a tanuki and the latter is already a fox hybrid but wears Japanese clothing this season. But in this idea, Etho hides the fact that he's a fox, so he looks like any other human until he isn't.

I almost forgot! Any relationship in this story idea is platonic.

Also posted on AO3 if you prefer to read it there :D

Joel reminisces about the time when he was an ogre a few years back, but shuddered since he thought it was cringe for past him to adore that movie so much that he changed into his favorite cartoon character. He looks at Lizzie's direction, and thinks he was relieved when she didn’t criticize him for who he was when she discovered the truth after Joel messed it up before.

While chatting with friends who are gathering in the living room, Joel notices his cup is empty and excuses himself to go to the kitchen, noticing how Grian is also following him. The noise from the living room fades once they arrive, having a quiet moment for themselves. Joel asks if Grian also comes to refill his drink.

Grian nods in agreement and heads to the counter to grab the tea box. Joel stands next to the blonde man as he waits for the other to finish, while Grian talks about how he's relieved to see everyone is doing okay even after months not meeting since the crossover.

Joel raises a brow and points out that obviously they're fine, and adds that why wouldn't they be. Grian explains that even though it was a bit, he was genuinely concerned what might happen to them after the Hermits left Grumbot for the Emperors to deal with.

Joel reassures his friend that as he can see, they're still alive and kicking before adding that Jimmy might not be since Joel's the one doing the kicking, mentioning how he built a giant portrait of them in his empire. Grian laughs as he pours water from the kettle, wishing that he could've seen the look on Timmy's face before offering to pour the water to Joel's own cup.

The brunette hands his as affirmation while saying that he looked exactly like a dumb idiot when he first saw that ghost when they tried that ghost investigator gig a few months back. The comments make both of them laugh and not long after, Grian casually asks if Joel wants to become a Hermit and join Hermitcraft. Joel abruptly stops and has to double back in his thoughts, asking himself if he misheards it but Grian answers his question when he repeats what he said.

There's a long pause of silence between them for a couple of seconds before Joel notices the casual look on the blonde's face morphs into wide eyes with a slacked jaw, tracing his gaze towards his back and twists his stomach into a knot once he notices the prominent brown tail on his back, now exposed for the world to see.

He's fucked.

---

Joel takes a look at the statues of Etho in front of his gate and glances at the real deal beside him, hesitating whether or not he should ask. It might be a touchy subject and he doesn't want to ruin the lighthearted moment they just had earlier. He jumps when someone clears their throat and turns to the source to see it was Etho. Etho says it might not be his business to ask, but questions whether Joel's okay.

Joel furrows his brows as he replies that of course he's okay, why wouldn't he be. Etho rubs the back of his neck as he explains that Joel's tail is slowly wagging while his ears are folded flat against his head, realizing it that Joel does that whenever he's upset about something. Joel smirks that Etho already notices his new body language in such a short period of time, pointing out that he really is obsessed with him.

Shortly, Joel sighs in defeat and says he's not gonna beat around the bush, so Etho should brace himself. Etho raises a brow in confusion and says okay. Joel asks if Etho is a yokai, making Etho flinch.

Etho averts his gaze while saying "I don't know what you're talking about." Etho thinks to himself that he sounded like Mrs. Tango when she tried to lie to them back then.

Joel adds that ever since he's showing off his yokai traits after that embarrassing blunder with Grian, he realizes that he can sense various energy flowing in the air and it's especially stronger on Hermitcraft. He then distinguishes something similar to himself and traces it to Etho, before reassuring that he never told anyone since Etho might be keeping it a secret like he did until recently and he wasn't sure if his assumptions are true or not.

Etho sighs and confirms that he's keeping his identity a secret. He asks Joel why he's hiding his. Joel says that it's been so long since he left Japan for good, long enough that he doesn't remember the language anymore, and was afraid that people might treat him differently if they know that he's a foreign entity. Nobody likes the unknown, so he's been pretending to be a human on different planets most of his life.

Joel then asks why Etho is hiding it, adding that based on the variations of species amongst the Hermits, he assumes that they'll be accepting despite of who Etho really is. Etho shakes his head and says that his kind already has a negative reputation in their home planet, more so outside of it. He doesn't want his species to influence his relationship with everyone. Joel nods in understanding and promises that his secret is safe with him.

Etho's eyes narrow and form crow's feet as he expresses his gratitude, a small indicator that he's smiling under the mask.

---

5 Hermits have been going outside the HC world for various reasons, but they promise to go back with souvenirs. When Gem, Grian, xB, and Zedaph have been falling ill and bedridden since they went back from the Hub, others have been trying to find a way on how to cure this unknown ailment that won't subside no matter what.

Etho, who's been one of the 5 but is miraculously fine, is never to be found publicly ever since the news about 4 Hermits being ill has spread. They see him going to the shopping district but never interact for that long whenever he meets someone.

The nerds of the community have been holing themselves in the archives of the stronghold to hopefully find a clue for the cure, only for them to find a book about yokai. They discover about tanuki, comparing it to what they know about Joel and laugh about how accurate the book is, especially about the part of Joel who traps/pranks someone but ends up embarrassing himself. Tango suddenly asks if his friends hear something, but they said no.

They continue to read until they reach the kitsune segment. They're horrified to say the least about the info, and realize there are similarities between the early signs of fox possession and the symptoms of their friends' unknown illness. They're trying not to be superstitious about the current situation since it might be a coincidence, until X receives a message from Cleo.

---

< Smallishbeans > hello Etho

< Smallishbeans > i tried to visit your place a couple of times but it always seemed like no one's home

< Smallishbeans > hopefully you're okay

< Smallishbeans > i just want you to know that it isn't your fault

---

They run to the infirmary, only to spot the 4 Hermits breathing heavily and convulsing as their hair roots start to turn white. Stress checks their eyes with a tiny flashlight one by one, and only then Cub sees that all their eyes are red and points it out. Tango says that he's aware that they shouldn't be superstitious, but he mentions that Etho's appearance oddly matches the descriptions in the book.

Doc agrees since he just remembered it now, but Etho's hair and both his eyes used to be brown until he apparently got caught up in an accident that changed his appearance permanently. Doc groans in frustration that he should've pressed about it more, but he didn't want to stress Etho since he wanted to keep that event a secret so badly.

Bdubs suddenly interrupts them with his greeting, making the nerds jump. Bdubs questions "Why the long face? It's not yet the end of the world, guys. There has to be something to cure them, we just haven't found it yet." Doc asks if Etho has spoken a different language other than English.

Bdubs perks and grins to compliment how Etho was really good with Japanese. During the early days of Mindcrack, he used to speak it a lot whenever they're alone and tease Bdubs just because he couldn't understand it. He then yells that no one can mess with him since he's a grown man and points that he only allowed Etho to tease him since he was pretty tense during that time, and switches to somber as he adds that it's prob bec of the tension before the war broke out. But since they left and moved to Hermitcraft, he refused to speak in Japanese even if no one was around.

When every healthy Hermit is kicked out by Stress, Cleo, and Hypno, they go outside to see others hanging out with various forms of worry in their faces.

X spots Beef amongst the crowd and asks the other nerds if they should ask Beef if he knows something else about Etho. Doc agrees and approaches Beef and receives a sorry fr the Canadian about not being in the mood to talk about their rivalry. Doc reassures that that's not why he's here, adding that it's about Etho.

Beef's reaction immediately switches to something dark as he asks "What happened to Etho?" Doc quickly says that Etho's okay, making the other Canadian relax, and he just wanna ask what's under his mask. He knows what he looks like underneath, but he's curious if it's different from many years ago.

Beef thinks aloud that there's nothing really different. Doc insists if he's sure, adding if there's anything subtle like unshaven chin or a tooth missing. Beef perks up "Now that you mention it, Etho used to have all of his canines intact but after we left Mindcrack, they may have grown longer, I think. It was so long ago, I don't remember the exact details. Oh, I almost forgot! He also lost one of them ever since then."

Doc agrees "Oh, yeah! I remember helping him make a substitute tooth, so he won't complain anymore about having a hard time biting meat" before thanking Beef as the nerds leave the scene, not noticing how a gaze has been following them the entire time.

Cub asks what they should do now, and if they search for other leads or rely on the superstition. Doc says that it's time for a confrontation. X points out that it's probably not a good idea to jump into conclusions when they're still unsure if it's a coincidence or not.

Doc replies that it'll probably be too late when that time comes, grimacing that he doesn't want to lose the people he cares about even though they're within reach. X sighs and agrees, but suggests that they should at least prepare in case something happens.

---

Etho brings in more shulkers into his soon to be storage area, dropping the one on his hands and wipe the sweat off his forehead with a sleeve. He's not sure how long he's been working in his base but based on how greasy his hair is, he must've been here for a long time. He turned off his comms ever since that accident, so he doesn't have any indicator of time other than what he can see beyond his windows. Electricity runs through his skin all of a sudden, making him jump as the magic in the air buzzes with tremendous energy.

Before he realizes, Etho jumps back the instant he hears something above him and just in time, he barely dodges the collapsed ceiling with a backward jump as everything is engulfed with smoke and something lands on the spot where he used to be.

He plants his hand towards the hilt of his sword in an instant, waiting for the cloud of smoke to clear. A spot in the middle of the mist forms a hole as something blurry comes out and pounces towards his direction, materializing the shield on his left hand in reflex and grunts once the unknown intruder lands on the wooden surface.

Etho gasps at the person in front of him, staring at their features with mouth agape. Their skin is now pale and hair gray, glaring eyes are fully white while red vein-like marks spread out to each corner. Their clawed hand raise above their head and swipes forward with tremendous speed, making Etho throw and abandon his protection but doesn't come out unscathed as their long nails grab his mask and graze small jagged lines on the lower half of his now exposed face.

His hand immediately covers his face while Scar yells to give his friends back. Etho can only furrow his brows in confusion. What does that mean? The other Hermit scoffs and complains to stop playing dumb, gradually emitting his magic stronger in every second as he adds "You have some nerve pretending to be one of us for so long," making Etho wince.

Why did he think for a second that it's going to be different this time? Just because he's been having the time of his life for the past ten years in this world, doesn't mean it won't end up like all the other places he perceived as his home.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, opening them back while he exhales and stifles his reaction towards the painful sensation in his chest, finally feeling like an empty room as he pulls out his sword.

The two jump forward as they begin their fierce interaction. It extends for who knows how long and unfortunately for Etho, his breath is becoming shorter and more hasty the longer the fight unfolds but due to his opponent's enormous magic reserve, Scar can still continue despite having run out of air like he did.

Suddenly, the former brunette disappears from his vision and quickly looks around but spots nothing. His ears pick up the noise of a pebble dropping and swiftly turns back, only to see Scar emerging from the ground like a ghost as he leaps to his direction but barely side steps with wobbly legs to dodge. It probably would've given him a huge advantage if he uses his animal ears, but he can't afford to expose himself now.

Gradually, his movements become sloppier and clumsier, even stumbling at a debris at one point that costs him his right arm.

Scar swipes his hand towards Etho's weapon, causing it to slip from the weak grip of his left hand before it flies and lands on the other side of their current position. Scar demands for the creature pretending to be Etho to let go of his friends if it wants to live, but Etho's reply is only his harsh breaths as he quietly stares at the other Hermit's direction.

Scar grits his sharp teeth and mumbles "then so be it" before stepping forward to swipe his claws. Etho shuts his eyes in anticipation of his demise but nothing seems to happen as he waits too long. He slowly opens them and spots something in front off him, gasping to see Joel standing between them. He looks down on the new member's feet to see the blood gradually forming into a pool before looking back up to make eye contact with the man himself.

"Joel, why are you--" Etho's breath is caught in his throat as he tries to ask.

"I--" Joel tries to smile but coughs blood instead. "--wanted to... visit my favorite fan..." He winces before breathing heavily. "...to see how he's going."

Joel drops to the floor but Etho manages to catch him on time, carefully laying his friend's head towards the green surface. He takes in Joel's pale features but every detail morphs into a blur, realizing shortly that he's crying. The only thing he can hear is the drumming of his heart against his aching chest as he can barely see Joel's lips moving, assuming that he's attempting to say something.

Wiping the ongoing tears vigorously wih his sleeve, Etho focuses on lip reading to understand what the brunette is trying to convey.

"I'm... glad... that... you're... safe..."

Etho interprets before seeing Joel's lips finally stop moving, intensifying the thumping in his ears as he registers that Joel's chest has also ceased to rise and fall. As if a rope has been cut in half, all of the decade's worth of suppressed energy in his body has unleashed like a tsunami, engulfing his entire being and immediately blacks out.

Scar, who's watching the whole ordeal unfolding before him, loses all his pent up rage while he can only gape in silence as Etho's forehead sprouts a pair of long fluffy ears, pristine white fur covering every part of his pale skin, nose and mouth lengthen into a snout with razor sharp teeth, tears multiple holes on his gloves as his nails extend into deadly claws, torso and limbs enlarge 5 times its original size while his back grow one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine tails, morphing his body into an entirely different entity.

The unknown creature roars, its voice reverberating and pushes him down like amplified gravity but barely holds his ground with wobbly legs as he can only cover his currently enhanced ears in hopes of preventing himself from going deaf.

What did he just awaken?

Not so fun fact:

[There are actually fox users who are hired by Hermitcraft haters to inflict harm on the Hermits, who had to go to the Hub before going to the specified planets they wanted to go. Those fox users use the foxes they tamed to possess the Hermits but Etho is different since he's a nine tailed fox shapeshifting as a human, so he's unaffected by it.]

[The reason why Etho's insistent on keeping his identity a secret was mainly bec of his experience in Mindcrack, when the people discovered who he actually was, they reacted negatively to say the least. He also kept that event a secret bec he was ambushed by a few members when Mindcrack was on the brink of destruction, and tortured him for info (and may or may not have treated him more terribly bec they knew he was a fox) but he refused to give any since he didn't want to sell out his friends (soon to be NHO), which caused him the scar on his left eye and lost control of his power and shapeshifting ability in the process, which prevented him from properly changing his human appearance.

He also can no longer change into anything else, so he's stuck as his human self. Luckily, he could still somehow hide his ears, tails, and eye, but the left one refused to change, so he just made an excuse that he had to make a redstone powered eye to replace his injured eye to explain that despite being wounded there, he managed to not damage his vision there.]

[socksenjoyer]

ok haha life series au idea time let's go bc i need to get this off my chest. I love being cringe 💞🌸✨

SO victorian/maybe georgian era life series AU. Supernatural shit is common but shunned from everyday life. Grian is the son of a rich family who vanished in.... mysterious. circumstances. So now he has the entire gigantic house to himself. His friends -- the life series members -- are mostly supernatural entities but Grian himself seems (mostly) human. They often visit him and vice versa, everything seems nice.

He's even visited his mysterious shut-in neighbour, who is a vampire trying to hide it VERY badly. Mumbo's only companion for the last few years has been his robot, Grumbot. Mumbo struggles to communicate with anyone because he's exceedingly anxious and incredibly ominous, but Grian has decided he WILL be friends with this strange man, so they are friends. Grian introduces him to the wonderful possibility of just asking for (animal) blood, instead of stealing it like a fricking chupacabras. Grumbot goes to live at Grian's house, because at this point Mumbo is just living with Grian. It's good. Everything's good.

Then, Grian barricades himself in his room, completely covering the window and absorbing himself in some kind of work. He refuses for any lights to be turned on in his vicinity (too bright) and instructs Mumbo to post a number of letters, one to each of the life series members. Each member tells the member that they need urgently to go to Grian's house NOW. Mumbo posts these letters, along with his own postscript explaining that Grian is obviously very sick, everyone starts to make their way there.

People start to arrive (scary!!) and chaos ensues as both the area Grian wants to be kept dark and the number of people increases. Since Mumbo can see fairly well in the dark, he's the only one who can get down the hallway to communicate with Grian. A few people become suspicious, as they don't know Mumbo (only Scar really knows him and impulse and skizz have at least met him) and he could easily be lying about what Grian's saying. One person, Gem, is exceedingly suspicious. She does NOT like Mumbo's general vibe (hmmm gem i wonder why gem) (ok in all seriousness she used to be a monster hunter, particularly a vampire hunter. She doesn't tell anyone this, but her old prejudices kinda start to show through). Everyone arrives but Pearl and Lizzie because Pearl is literally countries away and Lizzie is doing secret things...

One night, Grian tells Mumbo something, and tells him strictly not to tell anyone else. Turns out Grian is not Grian! He is in fact an eldritch horror that has been inhabiting Grian's body for the past *checks notes* fifteen years! This doesn't really change anything between them, since Mumbo and most of the lifers have never known the 'real' Grian, and it also doesn't answer any of anyone's burning questions, such as:

-why are we in this house

-what's the deal with the eyes? there's so many eyes, spinning and turning, always seeming to stare in one direction, maybe at me. i see them when i close my eyes now they're so bright i cannot think i cannot breathe all i can do is stare like a deer in headlights oh god oh god

-how do i know what a deer in headlights is? And why does Ren keep calling people 'dude'?

-What's up with Grian?

We don't out people in this house, so Mumbo doesn't tell anyone.

Only a day later, when everyone's asleep (apart from Mumbo insomnia gang💯🔥💯🔥 also he craves human flesh or whatever)(by extension Gem is also awake because hmm suspicious......) humongous hands appear, unable to be destroyed or escaped, taking people out of their beds and seemingly into the floorboards. It seems Grian is controlling them, but he can't be reached and didn't seem aware of what he's doing. It's only when Scar says something very quiet into Grian's ear that they both get dragged down No Childrenstyle and the hands stop. The only people remaining are Gem and Mumbo, thoroughly shaken up by the whole experience.

The goal then becomes to get along long enough to figure out what's going on and save everyone. First thing they do is send letters to Pearl and Lizzie, letting them know what's happening and maybe to hurry. They also send letters to Cub (knows stuff about magic) and Doc (knows stuff about interdimensional shenanigans) in the hopes they can help. Cub is very busy and says he might not be able to make it for a while but everyone else gets their ass in gear to come help.

Gym & mambo become tentative friends. They start to try and decipher Grian's notes, which appear to have been written in a completely unknown language. While they do this, something begins to happen around the outside of the house. Stone statues begin to appear, in a clockwise manner, completely buried apart from their arms, which poke out of the surface. Their first thought is to dig the statues up to see the rest of them, and doing this prompts the worst headaches and hallucinations (so many eyes and blinding lights blinding me blinding me in glory) either of them have ever felt. So we will not dig them up. They work out that the hands may well belong to the other lifers, since there's space for 14 people. Unbeknownst to mumbert and germ, the hands are also appearing in order of player deaths.

At about the same time Scott's statue appears, about a week after the disappearances, Mumbo mentions that Grian revealed something about himself near the end (the eldritch horror stuff). Gem is convinced this could be important and a little pissed that Mumbo is withholding crucial information. He refuses to tell her because it's not his secret to tell, and he doesn't think it would help them anyway. This entire argument devolves into Gem drawing her sword (which is so heavily consecrated that Mumbo physically recoils at being in the same room as the bare blade) and maybe accusing Mumbo of projecting his own fear of discovery onto Grian (Worth mentioning that Mumbo hasn't told her that he's a vampire but the fact he has to step away from the sword as if it were blasting the full concentrated power of the sun was kinda the last straw in figuring it out). Mumbo also gets incredibly pissed and asks why she even has that sword because the average person isn't carrying that shit around. So Gem admits she used to hunt vampires. Everyone gets to be furious until they sit down and have a nice talk HAHA ONLY JOKING THEY STEW ABOUT THIS SILENTLY AND ARE ONLY GETTING ALONG BECAUSE THE CIRCUMSTANCES DEMAND IT!! THEY ARE SILENTLY PISSED AT EACH OTHER FOR FUCKING CHAPTERS BABY.

Around the time Impulse's hands show up, Lizzie arrives. She is absolutely fucking going through it. She confirms that the hands of Joel are his because she recognises his ring. After the 'sorry your husband got buried and turned into a statue' talk she begins to help shed light on the language Grian has been writing in (it's standard galactic but with the added fun little twist that it is not encoding something in english but a whole new language only spoken by.....watchers!!! muahaha).

Bdubs' hands show up. Everyone is tense and upset and sleep deprived, and they've hit a wall. Lizzie can tell some shit has gone on between Morbius and Gort and suggests they maybe...talk to each other about it? They're both about to admit that they don't want to stay mad at each other but WAIT all of a sudden hold on. There's hands outside. That's Scar and Grian's hands and they're POETICALLY TANGLED TOGETHER, NO CHILDRENSTYLE? They both rush outside because that means everyone's here, so what now? Mumbo puts his hand on top of theirs and before Gem can warn him he is grabbed and pulled into the ground. Panicked, Gem goes to find Lizzie who is also nowhere to be seen, and in a dramatic final girl moment she fucking figures it all out OH MY GOD IT ALL MAKES SENSE AND THEN GEM ALSO IS TAKEN BY THE HANDS ANNNNND SCENE

Doc arrives at the house finding it completely empty, apart from Grumbot, who powered off a while ago because there was nobody left in the house. Doc powers Grumbot on to find answers, which is where we get a recount of the events from (Grumbot's been here.... the whole time!).

So yeah. I might end up writing this or comic-ing it or whatever. If anyone wants to use my idea w/credit please go ahead i would actually pledge my soul to you if you did that. Just you guys wait until you hear about the sleepover demon summoning au.

[viky-somebody]

pretty cool fic list

dog at the door - fluffy_papaya (absolute fave. Red King)

I still Bleed When i Fall Down - Paranoid_Pug (MCC gets attacked by watcher hunters)

And The Universe Shifts - aayaptre (fandom history)

this is about a stuffed bird - Bee_4 (apocalypse, Mumbo and EX dynamic)

fixed and dilated - iamsolarflare (Hypno & xB special hybrid powers shenanigans) 

Cause We Are Whole - ooFFFF (Tango becomes a robot and finds a new friend)

Nothing But Flowers - nho (Etho & myceluim resistance +nho references, sadly unfinished)

Still the Echoes Give Us Light - doctortrekkie (VERY good watcher grian series, HC + Traffic life series events.)

Eldritch Horror Keralis - MawoftheMagnetar (exactly what it says. but also oh so much more)

prometheus and the livewire - storm_warning (Ren the king is struggling. Doc is quiet and theres no news from him)

They say that the world was built for two - GardenerGulfie (Ren and Martyn keep meeting in different lives. also aromantic Ren pog)

Torchlight - Skelew (Ren is a god of a dead city stuck in the form of a torchlight and Martyn is his only follower)

the last days of the free angel of carrows - Bee_4 (Joe Hills and Zombie Cleo run a paranormal activity agency in a modern city. Cleo is a literal undead, Joe is a renowned angel, and together they get tied with a conspiracy against the city mayor.)

Lady Cleo, King Ren, and the Trials of The Midwest - storm_warning (Cleo and King Ren get teleported to Ohio)

Against The Clock - Leopardmask (Set in season 8, Evil X got possessed and the Horse Head Farms plus Wels and Jevin decide to deal with that) (Jevin is a slime & vex hybrid)

The Sky Weighs Heavy Tonight - MaoftheMagnetar (pilot au, set in a world with genetic mutations caused by a past war. gone emotional)

Joehills' Moderately Haunted House - zombiiehorse (Modern au, Joe buys a new house for a suspiciosly low price)

Monsters Splitting Hairs - Silverskye13 (Ren, Doc and Gem live in a village, forced to disguise as humans, bc of the history of the town) (great worldbuilding)

Lonesome Dreams - doctorletmebebrave (Jimmy Solidarity gets separated after the dragon fights and accepts a deal from the Listeners)

Lend Me A Hand - SolSearchingNights (Ponk sneaks onto hermitcraft and vents to Doc about their relationship with Sam)

Redstone and Skulk - Silverskye13 (Tango's helsmit Tanguish & Helsknight, delicious hels worlduilding)

Åttiofem - MawoftheMagnetar (Iskall has a terrible day getting kidnapped and finally discovers something about his past) (slight Stresskall shipping)

there are many downsides to being a marine biologist - donnerstag (modern day au with hybrids, Doc is a scientist studying a siren!Martyn whos been newly caught for their facility) (DOCMARTYN FISH YAOI LETS GO)

Ad Nauseam - mycelium_menace (Dawndragon) (Joe Hills is stuck in a timeloop. One day, a wild Cleo appears to shake him out of his apathy)

Black skies have changed into blue - GoodTimesWithScar (Oli Orionsound finds a wild Martyn, whos been reverse isekai'ed back from the datastream)

(i'll tend to the flames you can worship the) ashes - darubyprincxx (amazing post-rapture season 1 empires work. Fwhip and Gem survived and are on the run. They find a Pixlriffs, who's been missing for 8 years.)

Ad Astra - Moonsetvoid (Secret Life, the Watchers take a special interest in Scar. He ends up teaming up with Grian again.)

перепутье долга и выбора - M.Malevich (fic in russian, Fantasy AU Smalletho, Etho is a knight serving his king Grian. Joel and Lizzie are a pair of criminals attempting an assassination at a ball)

The Beginning After The Bad Ending - EvilRat_Sabre (Season 8 collapses due to a dangerous glitch, xB and Jevin being the only survivors manage to escape to a world where they never joined hermitcraft in an attempt to get help)

misc., *mostly* smaller fics

Empires

Kids in empires, what will they do?  - Faffodill (Hermes, Michael and Grumbot messing around)

food IS a love language and i will fight you on this - darubyprincxx (Hermes overhears a discussion between his parents)

Empires Strike Back - Leopardmask (A retelling of the Hermempires crossover)

Count fWhip Fails a Blood Test - darubyprincxx (set in empires season 1)

survivorship bias - Bee_4 (Jimmy wakes up in a city of New Pixandria, after the season 1 Rapture, with little to no memory of who he was before)

Fuck Around and Find Out - Moonstone_Kat (Sheriff Jimmy wants to finally end all the jokes about him being a toy and decides to pull off the most elaborate prank on his friends)

Hermitcraft

a not so calculated catch - vexberries (Mermaid!Scar and a sceptic Cub, who does not believe in mermaids but gets a crush anyway)

Four Hearts - PieOfDeath (Jlethubs valentines day fluff)

Wind Back The Clock - guy56 (Bdubs and Etho have existed in many worlds and timelines yet they still keep meeting each other)

Hermit City Heroes series - 2point5 (Superhero AU) (actually pretty long)

What's The Letter That Starts The Alphabet (Ayy!) - Darubyprincxx (Team STAR look at Rens Very Bad presentation)

Joe Hills, Joe Hills, Joe Hills - leopardmask (the guy gets possessed)

The Rising Moon, The Setting Sun (series) - Dillbug (Watcher Grian, worshipper Xisuma, runaway s9 Pearl + Bonus Drista)

We're not that different, you and I - swemae (grian and scar talk about vex magic)

cmon mumbo dont tell me youve never heard of a stable time loop - Sixteenthdays (Mumbo gets his soul back)

bad things come in small packages - kiwinatorwaffles (Jimmy is a Watcher and vouches for Grian to become one as well)

Found - sparxwrites (Grian saves Scar from the Boatem hole)

I lost the old, guess I need something new - SkyWillSomeTimesWrite (Grian needs glasses)

What Does It Mean To Truly Live? - Wrenny_Fang_03 (an okay Watcher Grian thing where Xisuma is also an ex-Watcher. not my thing tbh but it was alright)

A Dog's Nose - dontrollthedice (Ren asks about Etho and Beefs relationship)

Guys and Dolls - Leopardmask (cool Doll Grian concept)

Sticker War - darkleweather

Name-Calling is NOT supposed to suck this badly (One chapter with a cool concept. Grian hears everyone who says his true name)

Buddy System - (Ren & Grian in the End)

Healing Is a Four Letter Word - Hypno_cat (Grian is a cryptid, joins hc in secret and hides in the woods)

an observer in a land of none - jaysflight (vague fantasy, watcher Grian (Veld) and Scar) (really loved this)

Inversing Allocation - Interjection (5+1 watcher Grian stuff)

Following in Pandoras footsteps - Paranoid_Pug (Grian gets a surprise present)

send me a wave via subspace - FangirlOfPower (Joe is stuck and communicates with Cleo via voicemail)

When This World Is No More (The Moon is All We'll See) - Silverskye13 (Season 8 moon crush, sad)

To Convey a Certain Brilliance - Bee_4 (Joe dies repeatedly while trying to find hermits after the moon fell)

An Inhuman Waltz - MawoftheMagnetar (Jev stole one of Cleo's armor stands for unknown reasons)

It Takes Two to Tango - EyelessFog (Tango realizes he might be a system)

The Guppy Geiser's Miraculous Return - simplydm (the guppy geiser returns!)

Investigative Journalism - jaz_it_up (Pix and Sloy explore ruins of the season 8 world to find if anyone survived)

Heart Storm - Duchess_Of_Dumpsters (one cool chapter of Joe and Wels shipping)

The guy who conquers death- ooFFFF (Zedeath tries to hunt down Joe)

The Orange Promise - bloop_im_a_frog_now (Cub and Scar are forced to get engaged by Cub's rich parents)

Назад на землю - Refling (fic in russian, Tango tries the boat floating glitch and gets a ptsd attack)

De Roeping // The Calling - AstronautBeans (fic in Dutch with eng translation, water on the server turned everyone weird, xB and Hypno are on the run)

dream smp~

passerine - blujamas, thcscus

His Curse of Binding - bari_astralis (greek mythology themed au with reincarnation into modern times. the events of the early dream smp seasons are ancient history) (cried my eyes out)

Incarnate Inchoate - underoriginal (Dream is sent to hermitcraft and is forced to rethink his life choices)

Up For a Fight? (Tommy escapes the server to live a life by a fighting arena, changes in a lot of ways) (some typos in the text)

Black Bird Fly - MollyPollyKinz (everybody has wings and magic powers and tommy is a kidnapped prince)

It Feels Like Murder (Dream finds Sams body in the prison)

something you can’t bottle up - doingthewritethings (Tommy is slowly dealing with trauma)

Watch Untill The End - Noem (Dsmp fic in czech, a small reimagining of how the server was created, tied in with Evo and Tekkit lore)

The places that I've been to, I can't remember what I saw - metatronfell (Tubbo is dealing with DID symptoms)

others

that one time aztro went to space and came back with an alien - SDMP Backstory

Ghosts in the Sky - trafficpose (space au Docmartyn)

[blocksruinedme]

Hermicraft/Empires Rift Lore, Oct 9-17

tl;dr: Grian pushed a mysterious button in front of his weird rift that was likely(?) put there by an AU version of his robot son from a previous season, and now emperors are throwing foxes, eggs, and a tiny Jimmy onto Hermitcraft, watch the Hermitcraft charity livestream on sunday october 23 because it would be bizarre if emperors aren't going to the charity games. (Joel, don't kill the horses!)

Want more evidence? Here's video, then text.

People

Gem is in both Hermitcraft and Empires and I’ve seen no suggestion something is weird

False is in both HC & Empires, and her Empires character woke up there with no memory and *lore* and *stuff* is going on for real

Pearl is in Hermitcraft and was in Empires season 1, there’s all this lore, there’s cathedrals she’s a saint, she’s a goddess, she lives above afterlife smp in her HC s8 megabase and sent Oli from Afterlife to Empires to be a youtuber isekai protagonist? idk there’s a lot.

Sausage is having flashbacks to previous lives and is very entangled with Pearl, who was a close friend in empires s1 and now he worships her i guess

Recent events

Grian has a strange rift in his base - it’s like purple glass but not an actual portal. 

He also has Grumbot Prime, a version of his and Mumbo Jumbo’s abandoned political strategist super computer son Grumbot, who (canonically!) comes from an AU where Mumbo won the mayoral election in season 7. He sometimes says creepy things like “My Grian was sorry too.” 

These clips!

Oct 9: Grian finds a button in front of the rift that says “Begin?”. Grumbot tells him to push it via… don’t worry about it, he just does. Grian thinks someone else made grumbot say it. Grian tries to not push the button. He pushes the button.

Oct 11: Lizzie finds a new weird rift on Empires and sends Gary, a Fox-skinned-villager, to investigate.

Oct 12: Pixlriffs throws some eggs at the rift, and hears phantom clucking.

Oct 12: Joey finds the rift and leaves.

Oct 13: Fwhip finds the rift, hears a faint explosion, and leaves. He later returns with Lizzie to send his own explorer Sniff, Explorer of the Deep, in after Gary.

Oct 13: Joel tosses a Jimmy toy through the rift because there’s literally nothing else he could do, The Lore Commands It.

Oct 15: Scott thinks he hears a skeleton, then finds and rejects the rift.  

[Note: as emperors visit the rift it is getting louder and eerier]

Oct 15: Back on Hermitcraft, False goes to talk to Grumbot, finds the rift is now an actual nether portal, starts freaking out. She gets a zap when she goes too close, and then flies away, saying she’s done with grumbot, he’s been doing his own experiments, he’s obviously lt no better than the other one, have to keep an eye on him, doesn’t he know what happened last time. WHAT????? I haven’t watched a lot of s7 but I asked around and that doesn’t seem to line up with anything that happened in this timeline!!!! Where are you from, where is e!False from, what??

Oct 16: e!Gem visits the rift and leaves

Oct 16: Oli is going to have a festival, on the bridge right next to the rift, in one week, which happens to be the date of the Hermicraft charity stream that is going to have non-hermit special guests! What a random coincidence! While on the bridge, Sausage thinks he hears arrows, and goes to the rift, which is very loud. He pokes around and says “Santa Perla, what is this?”, throws a sunflower at the rift (sunflowers are e!Pearl’s motif), blacks out, comes to in the water in front of the empires rift, and goes home.  

Oct 17: Back around to Grian again! He is aware that his rift is now a nether portal and annoyed about spawns. He tries to go through and minecraft crashes, ha ha buggy portal super regular. There is a fox just hanging around in his base in the background, he never comments. There’s also a floating feather and a pig. Did Lizzie and fWhip’s explorers turn into a regular fox and a regular pig in vanilla hermitcraft? Did the fox then eat Pix’s chickens? WHERE’S JIMMY. 

Then Grian shoots some fricking TNT through the portal, because why not. This is presumably what fWhip heard. Scott thought he heard skeletons and Sausage thought he heard arrows SO we’ll see I guess!!! 

I'm really new in town, but I'm really digging this fandom and finding other people pouring over screenshots and such, I could never have done this in a vacuum!

[dailygrumbot]

Day 55: Family Tree Part 2 (with Part 1)

Part 1 was posted along with another post, so it could have been missed, hence why it is here. More parts will come, but that's when it gets complicated (as all the Hermits count as family). Rambling More info below!

(And reminder I made a discord to talk about the bots)

Remember this is about the characters and not the actual people since, y'know, the bots aren't really real (no matter how much that would be nice). But some of the actual people are on tumblr, and if there is some design element that makes them uncomfortable, please do say something!

I couldn't fit as many words as I would like, and some details got a little lost summarizing, so here's some of that extra context.

I know one common fact that's gone around is that Mumbo joined season 2 when he was still 17 or so. Character wise, Mumbo's bio family is out of the picture and joining as a minor of sorts needed some parental or guardian permission, so Xisuma essentially legally adopted Mumbo to make it easier.

Evil Xisuma would technically be a Great Uncle, but he insists on just being referred to as an Uncle, at least by Tegg. [Insert: I've only had [character] for 5 minutes meme].

I made Pearl's eyes pearlescent! And gave little star freckles! But otherwise Grian and Pearl being siblings is more found family than actually being related, but they call each other siblings.

Speaking of... Jimmy! Grian's lovingly bullying of Jimmy has major sibling vibes. I like to jokingly say they're soulmates, but not in the 'oh we are meant to be together, the universe says so' but more 'No matter what the situation is, even if technically the two shouldn't know each other, they do, and it's to annoy one another.' Soulsiblings if you will. Just, look at the entire interaction when the Hermits went to Empires and Grian found Jimmy.

NPG!!! He cameoed in the previous art piece. A pre-hermitcraft classic! He's in hels now with Evil Xisuma and the hels hermits. Grum isn't 100% sure if NPG and EX are friends, or if it's a low key hostage situation. In which case EX would be the hostage. NPG is sort of violently friendly.

Finally Grumbot Prime and Emperor Grumbot. Grumbot Prime is of course the alternate universe Grumbot that came from the rift. Grum worries about the fact that he wasn't successful getting Mumbo to be mayor while this alternate did. Meanwhile Emperor Grumbot wasn't exploded. Well he was, but got better and now just lives in Empires. (I mean this whole thing is sort of an au since Grum and Jrum aren't in s9, and tegg never hatched, etc etc, so empires is a lil changed as well.) Oh also Jrum doesn't just 'want' the crown, he just tries stealing it when he can. It is shiny. He want. Gib.

[fountainpenguin]

🌗 Half Hidden AU 🌗

Hermitcraft SMP

An urban fantasy "Hermits avoiding humans" mob hybrid AU

#ridwork guides

More MCYT AUs

What Is Half Hidden AU?

No matter how deep into their mob parents' lands the hybrids go, human towns keep encroaching. Every hybrid's got some version of the same ol' story- "Too human" for one side of the family, "too monster" for the other.

Survival in the jungle isn't easy, but at least it's home... or was, for a while. How many more seasons can they relocate, rebuild... avoid the hate and cruelties that hybrids receive? From both sides of their families, sometimes...

AO3 Series

Blog tag - #Half Hidden AU

Tone

Mostly found family fluff, angst, and romance. Some drama and comedy mixed in.

Mysticism and intrigue regarding magic, nature, and the world.

Characters

- All the Hermits, but few people outside Hermitcraft SMP. Not sure how many of them will show up in stories since I'm early in the AU, but they're all here in my heart.

- All mobs are anthros

- Grian has several half-siblings and adopted children that parallel his alter egos and supposed children in the canon.

Half-siblings: NPC Grian (Pre-Hermitcraft); Robot Grian (Pre-H); Ariana Griande (S6); Villager Grian (S6) Foster/adopted kids: Grumbot (S7); Jrumbot (S7); SnifferMyFeet (One-off)

Scar's also looking after his nephew (PiglinMyNose) with some help from Jimmy. Does that make Boyguna Pig's dad? ... idk, maybe.

- Occasional appearances from Empires characters, but they're not a focus.

- Current story drafts focus largely on Grian and Joel with plans to expand in the future as inspiration arrives.

Ships

- Joel (Wolf hybrid) / Lizzie (Axolotl hybrid) - They helped raise a kid named Hermes who mostly lives with his human father

- Grian's married to a parrot mob who lives outside the Hermit commune. He doesn't talk about it much.

Some background ships. More details to come as the AU expands.

Setting

Hermitcraft-themed locations, with emphasis on jungles and the coastline. There are some impressive builds, but most of them on a small scale due to limited space.

A focus on survival with some folks pushing for freedom and fun.

Is It For Me?

- Tense biological family relationships, but kindhearted found family

- Long-term anxiety underscoring people's lives. A sense of never being able to settle or achieve safety

- Non-human humanoids & interspecies relationships

- All mobs are anthros, but there's still meat-eating in this world. It's most common when mobs hunt mobs, but it's not unheard of for humans to hunt mobs and hybrids.

-> I don't plan to depict hybrid meat. Also, culture generally leans towards "good, civilized humans" eating plants they've farmed rather than "hunting and foraging like the animals."

- A general sense of finding sweetness and joy despite the nature of a difficult world

Major Themes

Found family, community, compassion, acceptance, identity, trust, anxiety, culture, love

Plot Highlights

- Hermits moving and rebuilding

- Awkward mixed-family interactions. Joel's family aren't too keen on his marrying a hybrid rather than a wolf mob.

- Welcoming new friends; adapting to the first day of the rest of your life. Rescuing people!

- Embracing (or rejecting) culture and expectations

- Exploring human society (Sneaky, sneaky!)

Ongoing?

This series debuted in the Hermitcraft Guess the Author event of 2024. It's ongoing with unscheduled updates, but several WIPs already outlined.

This probably won't be a very long series as I'm less familiar with Hermitcraft than the Life Series, but the idea for this one has been sitting with me a while. I'm glad to explore it.

Warnings, notes, and explanations below so readers can learn more about this AU. Don't like? Don't read.

👀 Take a Peek

New here? You might like to start with these:

There's only one work in this series so far!

Start Reading

Recommended ways to get into the full AU

🌄 First Written - "Platypus Bird: Free to Good Home"

In which Grian and Joel, having saved a newborn sniffer hybrid from drowning, go through the basic motions of "What comes next?" - Like childproofing the floating foster home.

The first character and lore story completed for this AU. I've planned pieces both before and after this point in the SnifferMyFeet arc- this is just the one that came out first.

I tried to write it as an easy introduction to the lore without being too long or intense. It's a good place to start.

📅 Chronological Start - TBA

🗺️ Worldbuilding

- The vibe I started with was "Hermitcraft setting, but full of civilians." I expanded from that to having many towns and cities, some of which are more accepting towards mob and hybrid cultures than others.

- Close Hermitcraft parallels, though I'm only familiar with Seasons 6 to 10, and only from about 6 POVs.

- There's only one world. No servers- Everything exists within one and Hermits move to new areas instead of changing worlds.

- Mobs are both realistic and mystical. Hybrids may have some magic, but not as much as mobs, who have far more mastery of it. Mobs are looked on with some respect or fear.

- Mining, crafting, and inventory management are mystical too.

- Some people eat meat, but society caters well to vegetarian and vegan dishes; no one would bat an eye for requesting such (unless you're somewhere very unique indeed). Mobs and even hybrids may be killed for their meat in some places while others have greater protections.

- Mobs bring down other mobs for meat (Ex: wolves preying on sheep, fox on chickens). Some do attack humans, but these are usually zombies, endermen, phantoms, creepers, and other monsters (not real-world creatures).

-> I don't plan to depict hybrid meat, though some folks may make threatening remarks (Ex: "I bet you taste like chicken"). Also, culture generally leans towards "good, civilized humans" eating plants they've farmed rather than "hunting and foraging like the animals."

- It's common to build fantastic things, with one person capable of building a whole town if they put their mind to it. Resources are widely available, but not always renewable or easy to obtain. The existence of many settlements across the world has led to the largest resource yields being protected.

- Humanoid mobs like villagers, pillagers, and wandering traders are essentially equal with humans. They have their own cultures and language, but can speak with humans.

- Pigs and piglins are perceived as the same thing. I think in this AU, piglins are perceived as boars (male) and pigs as sows (female), and all under the name "piglin."

- Mob/human relationships are often frowned on, though some parts of the world are more accepting. Human/hybrid relationships may be looked at skeptically by those who believe they're too different to work. Hybrid/mob relationships may be seen as beastly.

- All hybrids are infertile.

📋 AU Notes & Warnings

Found Family - Taking in unrelated or semi-related people. Family relationships can be a bit fluid or undefined, though some do have more defined sibling or parent-child vibes.

Grian's raising several people who are his half-siblings, but he sees himself a bit more as a flock leader (or father) than a brother.

Mob hybrid racism (Whole AU is themed around pushback from mobs and humans alike)

-> Views differ even between individuals within the same society, so it's not easy to "simply move to an accepting place."

-> Chromia (Scott's S2 empire from Empires SMP) is often cited as very accepting, even providing medical treatment to hybrids that some places don't offer

-> AU depicts cruelty. Mostly towards hybrids, but towards humans and mobs sometimes as well. 3-week-old SnifferMyFeet got thrown in a river by his dad; that's the direction we're going.

Non-human humanoids - Mobs are human-sized anthros. Hybrids are also human-sized. Mobs are very animalistic, with behaviors and community structures mimicking real-world animals (such as hunting other animals, which means anthros in this AU).

-> Grian was taken from his mom because she only fed him worms and grubs when he was born; his hybrid body needed milk.

-> Hybrids also have many mob instincts, but to a lesser degree.

Interspecies relationships: Human/mob, human/hybrid, and hybrid/mob are all fair game.

Human/mob relationships can result in hybrid offspring

Hybrids are infertile

At the time of posting this AU guide, I'm not planning to write sexual content for this AU, but if I'm inspired, anticipate interspecies relationships in that regard too.

I do anticipate romantic gestures like kissing, and preening, grooming, and cuddling.

- More MCYT AUs

- Want more info? Send an Ask!

You can create works based on this AU. Please cite me and/or the AU as appropriate (i.e. for things very specific to this AU). You are free to expand on ideas you've thought of thanks to my AU as a jumping off point. I'd love to reblog or link things to my AO3 works if I see them!

I write content with morally gray characters. Please don't portray my story events or worldbuilding out of context with intentional malice. As in, I request you do not post things created for the specific intention of bashing me or the AU

[petrichormeraki]

Grumbot is 3 now!!!

[bluiex]

i see trans grian and i black out /pos (also that lil time travel au is making me go insane i love it)

--------

"...I don't want to go home," Grian whispered. Rather, the younger Grian whispered, would be better said.

Present day Grian was frantically fiddling with all manners of switches and levers in the Grumbot cave, trying his best to keep the rift open as long as he could.

It had been a tumultuous several weeks, trying to figure out how the universe spat out his fifteen-year-old self into his laboratory. Or how, even more strangely, a sixteen-year-old Scar came crashing right after him, bloodied and bruised beyond belief.

Then again, they were both bleeding for different reasons.

"Neither do I," Scar mumbled, tightening the grip of his rifle's shoulder sling. He was going to miss the soft beds, and warm meals, and endless kindness these strangers had given him.

Most weirdly of all, he was going to miss the friend he was destined to meet again. Scar tugged on his earlobe.

"I'm going to miss you," Grian said, tugging on the hem of his school uniform. They had to go back into the rift the way they came out to avoid any inter-universal glitches, which put Grian back into the black skirt he despised.

Never in Grian's life would he had been able to piece together why he never liked his old clothing, if he hadn't seen himself ten years older, with a flat chest and a short haircut.

It was a lonely thought, to return to a place that he was going to be disrespected on the daily.

Scar quietly took up Grian's hand, and the pair walked towards the rift together. "I'll be counting down the days until we meet again," Scar said, a bright determination in his eyes that had not been there when he arrived.

He now had a reason to live, the knowledge of a better life waiting for him. Slipping something into Grian's palm, Scar took a deep breath, and marched into the rift, head held high.

Grian hesitated, fear of the past and not making it to the present paralyzing him where he stood. He looked down at his hand, and saw a single, bright red earring, the gold plating chipped away in parts.

The gemstone had not been polished in a very long time, and it was only now that Grian realized Scar had taken his earring off when the other Grian wasn't looking.

Of course he couldn't play by the rules. (The younger Grian felt his face grow warm.)

He quickly fastened it to his left ear, and with a small but determined hope flickering up in his chest, Grian too walked through the rift.

Present day Grian let out a huge breath, finally allowing the rift to slam shut. He draped himself over the control panel, fiddling with a remarkably familiar ruby earring dangling from his left ear.

AWWW AWEEE FKFKFBSHSIWSKDJJF

God i love this AU sm.. WAAAH JAY AMAZING WORK

[appleblocks]

Alright say hypothetical I don't know anything about your aus and say I really wanted to know more about them.

Could I get a summary(or the main plots of your aus?) :^D

Only if you wanna!

Of course!! :3

My aus are nothing too special compared to others out there, but I still love them a lot and know some of my friends here like them too <3

My first au was one I called Apple's Mythical AU, though the name might change one day, and it was very much based on my Glowsquid Joel design. It's really just my version of Hermitcraft Season 10 but most people (if not all, cause i havent drawn them all yet) are some type of creature. Joel is a Glowsquid Kraken with a humanoid form to be able to hang out with everyone, Gem is an Anglerfish Syren, because of her Dredge inspiration <3, Grian is,,,,, Grian. I drew him as a fish last time I drew anyhting of that au but to me he is a Watcher in disguise in every universe, so that fish design (if you could even call it that) will be retconned eventually.

In terms of lore I have the most for Joel, cause he's the character that sprouted all of this, and it goes like this:

Joel used to be the god of Stratos. Powerful, strong, tall, handsome, the whole package. But he took his powers for granted, and crossed a line that the Watchers, the elder gods, did not accept. He tried to force life with his powers, in the creation of Tiny Tom, and it nearly ripped a hole into their world because there was not enough data for the world to generate a proper creature, and so it was turned into a creature of void that the Watchers had to take away and stabilize, leaving them in another world for safety. The Watchers then stripped Joel of his godly powers and sent him crashing down to the ocean to die, but his wife Lizzie, The Ocean Queen, caught him and made him a new form, making him the first Glowsquid Kraken and allowing him to keep living.

I love him very much <3

@/stiffyck has a really cool Kraken Scar au and one time they drew my glowsquid Joel with him!! :3 You should go check them out!!

As for my other au, it kinda stems from that first one, but it is a Next Generation AU. I'm currently writing a fic for it, and the premise of the au as a whole is quite simple: the (mostly) cannonical kids of the hermits and lifers grown up and having their own adventures! <3

I'm a sucker for Next Gen aus, and this adoration started back in my MLP days lmao

The au follows Hermes (Empires 2), Tiny Tom (Empires 2), Grumbot (HC 7), Jrumbot (HC7), and Jeremy Jr. (SOS smp) in their lives as young adults, exploring their friendships and their familial relationships, and my fic Fresh Life (name derived from the term Fresh Meat) follows them experiencing their first Life Series together, with the return of the Boogeyman and a new Canary :3 I'm currently writing Chapter 1 and I'm writing it in 'Sessions', so each chapter will be the span of 1 mc session, roughly. I have multiple tags for this but the main ones are #next gen au and #project fresh life!

And I'm posting that one on AO3 now that I finally have an account!! The link is in my pinned post :3

Thank you so much for the ask!!! X3 sorry for the long and late reply, haha 😅

[sunofaraven]

Love Death + Grumbot

Zombies. We’ve always had them. They’re life’s last-ditch attempt at thwarting death; reanimated corpses acting out an echo of their lives. Dangerous, sure, but mainly an inconvenience. Burn your dead, build walls, keep an eye out at night—you’ll be fine. But this… sculk. It makes zombies look like kittens. And it’s spreading.

GUYS. I have finally posted chapter 1 of my zombie apocalypse au! Get ready for Grian and Mumbo sharing a brain cell, angst, hurt/comfort, Rancher fluff, and the ever-present threat of sculk.

New chapter at least every Monday!

[angeart]

VIBRATE. BRAINROTS. EXPLODES

au where scar coulnt save Grian and so he became hot guy instead. and he became really popular and stuff and for whatever reason scar attaches to mumbo and protects him so bad because he couldn’t protect Grian so he needs to protect mumbo instead. see okay this was right this way. we can have silly little redscape and we can have angst.

(and also. let’s say, hypothetically, Grian… didn’t die. IF U CATCH MY DRIFY YKYK)

ohhh the guilt and helplessness and self hate. the feeling of not being good enough. of being a failure. the loss and grief.

the determination to never let it happen again.

i feel like that would make the redscape dynamic difficult to navigate (in a good, tasty way, trust me, we like angst here). since grian was mumbo's close friend. if it was scar's failure that resulted in grian's death? then again, the mutual grief could make them seek out more comfort in each other and... myeah.

ANYWAY. yes, as soon as i started reading the ask, my thought was also that grian really didn't die.

this instantly made me think of two things (although i can already see more possibilities shaping up).

one is that au inspired by stiffy's TOGH (i think that was the name?), where hotguy is presumed dead and cuteguy/grian struggles in the aftermath. (look i haven't rambled about this au here, but my version of it lives in my head. it's good.) but with swapped roles, in this case, obviously.

the second immediate thought was the rift. what if grian didn't die, because of the rift. (it's happened before.) but nobody knows. (what if he gets trapped in the rift?) (what if they don't know for months and then mumbo decides, with a sharp misguided nostalgia, to talk to grumbot, and grumbot somehow ends up telling him?) (what if mumbo thinks that maybe he's misunderstanding?) (what if scar thinks that mumbo is grasping at straws, grian is dead, we need to let go or it'll never stop hurting?) (what if-)

ahem. anyway. did you have any other specific idea? i once again kinda ran wild with this one oops.

(going to throw in a little extra bit for watcher grian enthusiasts: what if grian didn't die, but respawned in the void, trapped with the watchers again? the ones he spent years desperately running/hiding from? <3)

[meteor752]

Double life kids, eight years later

The final designs for the kids. Wont make anymore, unless I finally get on with making that Superhero au I said I would do a few months ago

Anyways

I’ve been working really hard on these designs, and some of them are probably the best I’ve ever made! So I really hope you like them!

Liana

(A few years down the road, the watcher genes started to become more prominent. The extra pairs of wings and the eye change are just the beginning too! Her color palette is kinda a mess but it’s just how she rolls. Top hat with goggles and a corset because Steampunk vibes are cool. Also her Flyguy bow, just in case)

Parrot pal has successfully started her own business, where she sells everything from deep slate to gold to clothing and mercenary jobs. The wider the spread, the better the bread

Lives very close to the shopping district, to keep an eye on her shops

The Watcher thing sure is…interesting. Grian hasn’t told her the full story, so she isn’t sure exactly what she is but she knows that it’s something unworldy

Is still learning to disguise it

Has a fierce rivalry with Mumbo over trying to become the riches hermit. Mumbo had no idea this rivalry is happening

She’s bestie with her little brother, Grumbot Prime

Wes

(Golden boy. His Hc and current design has a lot of similarities, mainly because when it comes to change he likes to take things slow. Got a haircut tho, plus many tattoos and a circlet to represent his status as the son of the sun god (Tho who knows how true that actually is). Also has a skull ring, in honor of Jekiv)

Baby boy is doing fine. Mostly

Is decked out in gold because again, he loves to mine, and gold is his favorite ore

Lost part of his ear and hearing in a creeper explosion, least favorite of his scars

Has improved his self confidence greatly over the years, which in turn improved his relationship with his dad

(Side note, I can imagine Xisuma whitelisting like a therapist or something just because these three, especially Wes, has some things to work through)

Is actually an extremely skilled farm creator, just like his other dad

Spends a lot of time trying to find a way to fix their code so they can leave and rejoin servers

Gertrude

(Total princess warrior vibes for her. Wanted her to be a mixture of Butch and femme, in the weirdest way possible. She’s now also wearing shoes! I wanted her to have heels alright? Her soles eventually got worn out so she’s wearing a pair of boots)

One of the best warriors on Empires SMP

Used to have separate outfits for being a monster hunter and being a noble, but eventually just combined the two to make her life easier

(Eddie made her armor, she’s very grateful)

The armor had to be made fireproof, because despite being older she still scuffles playfully with Johnny

She went through quite a large number of weapons before settling on the mace. It just, “fit her”

Also very few people can actually lift her mace, because it’s extremely heavy.

Sometimes helps out fWhip in Gobland with redstone, just because it’s fun. She enjoys the challenges that he presents to her

Wants to someday face ten withers and take down them all. Until then, she will train with all her might

Johnny

(My friend told me he looked evil lol. Ran out of cowboy outfits a long time ago, so here’s a more outlaw vibey one. The goggles and scarf are to protect his face from sand though, so likes there’s a reason lol. Butternut stands proud at the scene as well)

Despite his outer appearance, he’s still the nice lad you all know and love

He is more of a free roamer nowadays though, mostly traveling the mesa around Tumble Town, sometimes even beyond it

After Liana left for Empires, Johnny started helping Pix out with his excavations

When there’s word of a new discovery far away from any of the empires, you can bet your ass that Johnny is he first man on the case

And sure, he caaaaaaaaaaan use his elytra and get there in maybe half a day, but that beats the point of traveling!

An absolute expert at dealing with mobs at this point, especially creepers. Goes fucking crazy with that whip of his

Despite it all, he’s still a simple country bumpkin at heart, who likes his breakfast early and his music country

Jassy

(Queen is extremely anime. I just searched “anime ninja female” and tried to get general style of outfit correct. Her hair was almost impossible, but looking on it now it looks fantastic. Her daggers are also enchanted, that’s why they’re purple lol)

Jassy is a trophy wife and she takes her job very seriously

She does know her way around redstone, and she ain’t a bad builder (She’s the one who made her and Liana’s base), but her wife is out making bank while she takes care of their many, many cats

The mercenary part of Double Co. is her entirely though.

The story behind her damaged eye is a mystery to all, as every time someone asks about it she makes up some new fantastical tale

In reality she was flipping her daggers while laying down on the ground, then accidentally dropped one. It ain’t as cool as fighting an alligator, or taking down twenty wardens at once though

Jekiv

(Glow up of the fucking century my dude. He ain’t abandoning his love for pastels anytime soon, but that almost makes him more scary. Exchanged his old staff for a scythe just for the aesthetic. If you look closely at the hand holding the scythe, you can see a golden ring)

*Becomes a mass murderer* ~Character development~

He’s still not a full fledged necromancer yet, though he can summon entire corpses now. Actually getting them to do his bidding is another thing

The squirrel on his shoulders is named Chimp. She’s his familiar, and she’s thirsty for blood

Has spent nearly four years trying to solve the mystery of The Evermoore, but hasn’t come out with much result

Did find out he has no soul, or at least not a traditional one, so that’s neat!

Existential crisis aside, Jekiv is also trying to figure out a way for their code to be fixed.

Novo

(Pov: Ur about to want and rip your ears off. Hat decorated, coat fluffy, heels fucking iconic, my man has the drip. A weird drip, but the drip nonetheless. And after all these years, he still does the ruined makeup look. Some things never change)

Switched to playing the bagpipe, because those things are both loud and difficult to learn to play. Novo does not know how to play, but that doesn’t stop him one bit

Best big brother to Oli’s child, and with that I mean the absolute worst influence a child could ask for

Actually managed to reconcile with Scott, despite all odds. It’s not a perfect father-son relationship, but like none of them have that so it’s fine

Wears a lot of pink partly to match with Gert, and partly because it’s a loud and obnoxious color, so it garners attention

The wealthiest of all the kids, just by people paying him to leave him Tf alone

There’s some fic ideas I still have with the kids, plus maybe the fourth series will give me some new material, but these are probably the final designs I will make for them.